THE Tembari Children's Care (TCC) Inc is a day care facility at ATS Oro Settlement, 7-Mile, outside of Port Moresby, PNG. To date, it takes care of more than 200 former street children - orphans, abandoned and the unfortunate - by serving them meals twice a day, and providing them early education. Assistance - food and money - is sent by supporters who find merit in the services we provide to these children. At The Center, they are family. For all of these, we need support that is sustainable.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

British High Commission lets milk flow for Tembari children

Kids wait in line while a volunteer prepares to serve them milk during last Saturday's special lunch at The Center.

Siblings Shaun (left), Rose and Melanie Hale enjoy their milk. Milk supply is being provided by the British High Commission and a generous benefactor at RH Group.

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZA Friend Of Tembari Children

THE fundraising fun-run recently staged by friends of the British High Commission in Port Moresby is now directly benefiting the children at the Center.

From the funds raised, the High Comm will provide the 83 kids a weekly supply of fresh milk.

So, starting on Monday, June 7, our kids will begin drinking milk to supplement what they had at lunch from Monday to Friday.

Completing the weekly milk cycle is the Saturday milk drinking, which is sponsored by a generous benefactor from RH Group and his generosity will go on for as long as necessary.

Also our good friend at RH, alongside with another generous expatriate donor identified only through his initials “AP”, have been providing the Center with a generous amount of rice, which enables the kids to enjoy rice at lunch – from Monday to Saturday.

Suzanne Laister, the assistant to the High Commissioner, told me that their milk sponsorship will last for six months.

The British High Com has responded to my appeal for a regular supply of milk for our children-beneficiaries in my blog at www.tembari.blogspot.com.

In that blog, I stressed what has long been known to many – that milk helps a lot in improving nutrition, it being a complete food, badly needed by the body.

With milk everyday alongside a daily meal of rice and protein-source like tinned fish or meat, our kids are gradually gaining better nutrition for their frail bodies.

From 2003 until sometime ago, the Center could only afford to serve the Tembari children with a meal of kaukaw, boiled greens and buttered sliced bread four times a week – that is Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

This was because the Center had very little funds which barely met the food requirements of its wards. That’s why it could only provide lunch four times a week. In between those days, we did not have any idea what they ate at home.

These days, the Center is a lot better off, thanks to our benefactors who believe in what we do for these unfortunate kids.

So to our generous milk donors: Thank you very much! We could not thank you enough.

THE BLOGGER

ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ, A Friend of Tembari Children. Blogger APH came to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, in 1993 to join The National newspaper as one of its pioneering journalists. Working as Executive Sub Editor, he has remained with the daily, now the country’s No. 1 newspaper, up to these days. He has been a journalist since his university days in Manila back in the late 60s. APH’s involvement with the Tembari children began in January 2010 after he discovered them at a Christmas party for the city’s 500 unfortunate children held at the Botanical Garden in Port Moresby. That day, he was chasing a story for The National, which happened to be that of the unfortunate children in the city. His self-appointed job for Tembari children composed of orphaned, abandoned, neglected and unfortunate children is to look for people and groups who could provide them food, money, health services and facilities necessary to create positive changes in their lives. This job is difficult, but what the heck …!

(Our sponsored Saturday lunch for the 200 Tembari kids costs only K250.00 per sponsor (we usually have two), which covers a special meat (fish or chicken) dish, veggies, steamed rice and cordial drink. The Saturday lunch needs at least two sponsors. Some had given more, allowing us to give the kids a generous heap of the day’s lunch. A rare bonus to the sponsors, along with the bricks they earn each time, is that I personally cook the dish, giving it a personal touch. And as they earn a brick, each of our benefactors also earn a passage into the heart of the Tembari kids, which is also a prepaid ticket to Heaven.)